Minnesota Swarm (2-4) 12
Boston Blazers (5-3) 16
Offense Finally Scores, But Defense Snores
Friday, February 20, 2009
St. Paul, Minnesota
Attendance: 12,106
Another slow start doomed the Minnesota Swarm on Friday night at the X as they lost to the Boston Blazers, 16-12. The Blazers
jumped out to a 5-1 lead to start and never trailed during the game. The loss is the Swarm's fourth straight after starting out 2-0.
This is the second longest losing streak in Swarm history after losing seven in a row in 2005. The loss also tied them with the
San Jose Stealth in fourth place in the West Division.
Daryl Veltman, the leading candidate for NLL Rookie of the Year, scored just sixteen seconds into the game before anybody
was able to sit down to watch the game. Dan Marohl tied it up with a rocket past Anthony Cosmo. The Blazers then scored four
straight goals by the midpoint of first quarter to go up 5-1. Sean Pollock worked his magic around the crease to get the Swarm's
second goal of the night and Ryan Sharp scored his first goal of the season after picking up a rebound to narrow the lead to 5-3.
Jason Bloom scored to make it 6-4 as he received a behind the back pass from Dan Dawson as he cut to the net. After Jack Reid
was sent to the box due to an illegal cross check, Ryan Ward scored on the power play with 9.7 seconds left in the first with a
cannon from the right of Cosmo.
The Blazers quickly built their lead in the second quarter with three straight goals. After Veltman scored on a behind the
back pass from Gary Bining to make it 8-4, Swarm starting goaltender Nick Patterson was pulled in favor of Kevin Croswell.
Bloom greeted Croswell of the ensuing face off as the Swarm defense failed to pick him up going to the net. Ward stopped
the bleeding with a power play goal off a rebound. Chad Culp challenged the referees on an out of bounds play and succeeding
in getting the ball back in the Swarm's possession. Pollock then capitalized on that possession after working on a successful
pick and roll with Ward. Veltman scored once more before Ward scored off a screen to finish the first half scoring with the
Swarm down 10-7.
Just twelve seconds in the second half, Darren Halls went down along the boards with an injury, may have twisted something.
He was carried off the floor after being down for about minute. The Blazers had possession off that injury timeout and Gary
Bining received the pass from D. Dawson right down the middle for the goal. Ward answered about two minutes later for his
fourth of the night. As usual, the Blazers countered with Veltman getting his fourth of the night to put the Blazers up 12-8.
Only 27 seconds later at the 4:48 mark, Culp grabbed a rebound in front of the net off an Andrew Watt shot to make it 12-9.
That score held up through the end of the third quarter.
The Blazers buried the Swarm to start the fourth putting the game out of reach with three straight goals including the first two
from Nick Cotter. By the Jay Thorimbert scored the third of those three to make it 15-9, the Swarm were playing with the extra
attacker. They switched back to Patterson in net to take advantage of his speed in running from the bench to the net and vice versa
for about the last five minutes of the game. Patterson made some herculean efforts to get back in net to make some diving saves on
D. Dawson for instance. While Patterson was running back and forth, the Swarm themselves scored three straight extra attacker
goals to cut the lead to 15-12. The first two came from Chad Culp, who completed his first hat trick of the season. Marohl finished
the scoring for the Swarm with his patented Air Gait. The Blazers added an empty netter in the last minute to make the final
score 16-12.
Ward led the Swarm with four goals and three assists in the biggest single game scoring output for a Swarm player this year.
Culp and Pollock each got five points. Rory McDade was signed to replace the traded Dean Hill in the line up and he got three
assists in his 2009 debut. Dawson had a fantastic night with two goals and ten assists as he contributed on 75% of the Blazers
goals.
Game Statistics
Box Score
Minnesota Swarm Game Center
| Team Stats |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
F |
|
Sv/S |
PIM |
PP |
SH |
S |
SOG |
LB |
FO |
| Minnesota |
4 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
12 |
|
29/45 |
10 |
3/7 |
0 |
73 |
52 |
66 |
12/32 |
| Boston |
6 |
4 |
2 |
4 |
16 |
|
40/52 |
18 |
2/3 |
0 |
61 |
45 |
67 |
20/32 |
| # |
Minnesota |
G |
A |
Pts |
PIM |
PPG |
SHG |
S |
SOG |
LB |
FO |
| 44 |
Ryan Ward |
4 |
3 |
7 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
18 |
13 |
4 |
0/0 |
| 19 |
Chad Culp |
3 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
6 |
3 |
0/0 |
| 17 |
Sean Pollock |
2 |
3 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
11 |
10 |
3 |
0/0 |
| 7 |
Dan Marohl |
2 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
0/0 |
| 8 |
Rory McDade |
0 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
0/0 |
| 10 |
Aaron Wilson |
0 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
5 |
3 |
0/0 |
| 22 |
Andrew Watt |
0 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
0/0 |
| 21 |
Kevin Fines |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
10/20 |
| 71 |
Kevin Ross |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
3 |
4 |
0/0 |
| 26 |
Ryan Sharp |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
11 |
0/0 |
| 12 |
Eric Pacey |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0/0 |
| 16 |
Noah Talbot |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
0/0 |
| 23 |
Jon Sullivan |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0/0 |
| 28 |
Darren Halls |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2/12 |
| 31 |
Kevin Croswell |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0/0 |
| 34 |
Nick Inch |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0/0 |
| 50 |
Ryan Cousins |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0/0 |
| 93 |
NickPatterson |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0/0 |
| 4 |
Joe Cinosky |
Did Not Dress |
| 5 |
Josh Funk |
Did Not Dress |
| 27 |
Colin Achenbach |
Did Not Dress |
| 33 |
Kevin Buchanan |
Did Not Dress |
| 47 |
Travis Hill |
Did Not Dress |
| |
| # |
Minnesota |
MIN |
GA |
Saves |
Shots |
Dec |
|
| 93 |
NickPatterson |
25:13 |
8 |
9 |
17 |
|
|
| 31 |
Kevin Croswell |
34:43 |
7 |
20 |
27 |
L 1-2 |
|
| |
Empty Net |
0:04 |
1 |
|
1 |
|
|
| |
| # |
Boston |
G |
A |
Pts |
PIM |
PPG |
SHG |
S |
SOG |
LB |
FO |
| 6 |
Dan Dawson |
2 |
10 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
10 |
3 |
0/0 |
| 16 |
Daryl Veltman |
4 |
3 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
15 |
11 |
3 |
0/0 |
| 9 |
Gary Bining |
2 |
3 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
7 |
6 |
1 |
0/0 |
| 37 |
Nick Cotter |
3 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
0/0 |
| 19 |
Matt Lyons |
0 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
0/0 |
| 47 |
Jason Bloom |
2 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
1/1 |
| 2 |
Paul Dawson |
1 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0/0 |
| 75 |
Jay Thorimbert |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
19/31 |
| 85 |
Mitch Belisle |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
7 |
0/0 |
| 8 |
Greg Downing |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
8 |
0/0 |
| 10 |
Brendan Thenhaus |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
0/0 |
| 18 |
Jack Reid |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
0/0 |
| 33 |
Jon Harnett |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
15 |
0/0 |
| 44 |
Anthony Cosmo |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0/0 |
| 4 |
Carter Livingstone |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0/0 |
| 12 |
Jonathan Durno |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0/0 |
| 97 |
Kyle Ross |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
0/0 |
| 30 |
Mike Poulin |
Backup Goaltender - Did Not Play |
| 22 |
Bryan Bendig |
Did Not Dress |
| 23 |
Brett Queener |
Did Not Dress |
| 25 |
Sean Morris |
Did Not Dress |
| 28 |
Dilan Graham |
Did Not Dress |
| 66 |
Nick Rose |
Did Not Dress |
| |
| # |
Boston |
MIN |
GA |
Saves |
Shots |
Dec |
|
| 44 |
Anthony Cosmo |
59:59 |
12 |
40 |
52 |
W 5-2 |
|
| 30 |
Mike Poulin |
0:00 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
| |
Empty Net |
0:01 |
0 |
|
0 |
|
|
Next Games After This Match Up
- Minnesota (2-4) at Philadelphia (2-5) - Saturday, February 21 6:30 pm CST
- Boston (5-3) vs Calgary (5-1) - Sunday, February 22 4:00 pm CST
| 
